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Monday, 23 September 2013

New Marmite Advert - I hate it

It's the long standing slogan of Marmite that you either love it or hate it. Incidentally I do love the product, but I have to say I HATE the new TV advertising campaign.I only saw it for the first time last night, although I since understand it was released a good few weeks ago, and despite receiving over 500 complaints the Advertising Standards Authority will not be investigating it, claiming that 'most viewers will realise it's a spoof.'Now, I'm not a hugely over-sensitive soul. I'm not often riled enough to complain to governing bodies. I'm no Mary Whitehouse, I swear, laugh sometimes at un-pc jokes and have been known to make the odd close to the knuckle joke or two myself.But abuse, neglect and cruelty are NEVER funny. Surely?The opening scene to me looks like a child protection raid, with uniformed figures conducting an early morning visit on a suburban house. The officer informs the man answering the door "we've had a couple of reports of neglect" as they enter the house and head for the kitchen. Inside the faces of the children are pixelated out, suggesting to me a child safeguarding issue. The officers head straight for the food cupboards and start their inspection.Neglect. Food cupboards. I'm sorry, but in a world where Victoria Climie; Daniel Pelka and Hamzah Khan to name a few, all suffered extreme neglect and cruelty, were denied access to food, were severely malnourished and starved - is this the kind of thing a multi-national company should be poking fun at?Michael Burke, a reporter associated with hard-hitting news reports and documentaries narrates the film:"For those new to the job, such scenes of neglect can be traumatic"while a uniformed officer, wearing latex gloves is see sat against the van outside, crying, and says to his colleague "I've not seen one that small before".

Because the images of animal cages and re-homing centres make reference to animal rescues, many of the complaints have been concerning belittling the issue of animal cruelty, and have since resulted in Unilever, Marmite's parent company donating £18,000 to the RSPCA.Yes, there are references to animal welfare, also a subject hardly worthy of mockery, but to me my first impression and the one that will remain with me is the chilling similarities with child abuse cases.So yes, I hate it. Shame on Unilever, and shame on Michael Burke for his involvement.

If you want to read more about why child neglect should not be an issue used as a marketing tool, read about Daniel Pelka's case over on Mummy Barrow's blog.

It's in horrendous taste. It's in the same ilk as people bandying around the word "rape" casually. It's not OK, it's never OK. And bloody hell, if Unilever such a huge amount to the RSPCA, surely that'd make them think this advert isn't acceptable?

I haven't seen this advert at all until now - I love Marmite, my kids love marmite, but this is making a mockery of cruelty to kids, and to animals...yes its clearly a spoof BUT should we be spoofing such subjects given the recent cases. I think not. I totally agree with you. Shocking and shameful for the companies involved.

Oh My God. I haven't seen this advert till now, and I feel sick. I am a paediatric nurse who has dealt with many hard and terrible child protection cases, this is making a complete mockery of neglect. How on earth has this been allowed? I usually love marmite and I am first to love a little bit of clever advertising, but this is just awful. :(